Stellariumvs
SkySafari
SkySafari: If you want a mobile app with telescope control sold as a one-time purchase rather than a subscription
Stellarium
Free open source desktop planetarium software, distinct from the paid Stellarium Mobile Plus app
As of 1 September 2026, Stellarium is free to use. Desktop planetarium software that is free and open source under the GPL licence, built and maintained as a community project rather than sold. Softwr lists it under Education. Stellarium is made by Stellarium open source project, available on Windows, macOS, Linux.
Overview
What Stellarium does
Stellarium renders a photorealistic simulation of the night sky on desktop, with a catalogue covering hundreds of thousands of stars, planets, comets, satellites and deep-sky objects, plus telescope control support and a scripting engine for custom shows. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux and is entirely free and open source under the GPL licence, developed by volunteer contributors rather than a company. The fact worth flagging clearly is that the free, open source reputation belongs to the desktop software, not to the mobile app carrying the same name. Stellarium Mobile Plus is a separate commercial product built by Noctua Software and sold on a subscription, roughly a few dollars a month or around twenty to thirty dollars a year depending on region. Someone downloading a mobile app called Stellarium expecting the desktop project free licence will instead find a paid subscription, and that mismatch is a genuine source of user confusion worth stating plainly in any comparison. Buyers of the desktop software pay nothing; it suits students, educators, amateur astronomers and anyone running a planetarium display who wants a serious, scriptable tool without a licence fee. Buyers of Stellarium Mobile Plus are paying for a phone-native version of a similar sky simulation, and should understand it is a different company entirely from the desktop project.
What people use it for
- A student or educator wanting a serious, scriptable planetarium tool without a budget line item
- An amateur astronomer wanting telescope control from desktop software they can inspect and modify
- Someone running a planetarium display or public astronomy event on a scripted show
- A hobbyist who wants a large object catalogue without paying a subscription, and does not need a phone app
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Stellarium.
- It is desktop-only software, so it has no native touch-optimised phone interface; the similarly named mobile app is a different paid product from a different company.
- As a volunteer-maintained open source project, support is community-based rather than a guaranteed commercial help desk.
- The interface, while capable, is less immediately intuitive for a first-time user than a polished commercial phone app.
- Telescope control and some advanced plugins require additional setup that a non-technical user may find fiddly.
- Because it shares a name with the unrelated paid Stellarium Mobile Plus app, buyers researching pricing online can easily conflate the two products.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Stellarium
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- StellariumvsStar Walk 2
Star Walk 2: If you want a casual, low-cost mobile sky map instead of desktop software
- StellariumvsSky Guide
Sky Guide: If you want an iOS-specific paid astronomy app with meteor and light pollution forecasting
Pricing
What Stellarium costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Stellarium Desktop
Free
- Full software, GPL licensed
- No account, ads or subscription
- Community-developed plugins
Capabilities
Features
Photorealistic sky rendering
Simulates the night sky with atmospheric effects and landscape silhouettes
Large object catalogue
Hundreds of thousands of stars plus planets, comets and deep-sky objects
Telescope control
Drives compatible telescope mounts via plugins
Scripting engine
Custom scripted shows for planetarium and education use
Free and open source
GPL-licensed desktop software with no purchase price
Plugin ecosystem
Community plugins extend satellite tracking, exoplanets and more
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Stellarium really free?
The desktop software is free and open source under the GPL licence. The separate mobile app, Stellarium Mobile Plus, is a different paid product.
Is the mobile app made by the same team?
No. Stellarium Mobile Plus is built by Noctua Software, a different company, and is sold on subscription.
What platforms does the free version run on?
Windows, macOS and Linux desktop.
Keep looking
Where to go from Stellarium
- Stellarium alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Stellarium pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Stellarium badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Education softwareThe full category
- Best Education softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Education software for
Compare Stellarium with
- SkySafari
- Sky Guide
- Star Walk 2
- Anki
- Pl@ntNet
- Seek by iNaturalist
- Open edX
- Codecademy
- Merlin Bird ID
- Khan Academy
- Duolingo
- Pluralsight
- Bark for Schools
- Busuu
- ClassLink
- Pl@ntNet
- eBird
- eBird
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Free plan10 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Stellarium, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Stellarium
Stellarium alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Stellarium pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Stellarium
Put it head to head with anything we hold
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